Game Day 2 - Denmark too strong for Sweden in Scandinavian Derby

After seeing the local derbies of Ireland vs Great Britain and USA vs Canada on Day 1, the second day's play kicked off with the Scandinavian derby between Sweden and Denmark. The Vikings and Elks looked evenly matched early, but ultimately Denmark’s structure and game plan won out, the Vikings running out 39-point winners.

Christian Rose got Denmark off to a good start with two goals after the sides battled it out in packs for the first five minutes. Sweden responded through Nillson and Bondeau to even up the scores but that was to be the last time the Swedes would be close in this match. Chris Campion marked well and converted to give the Danes a seven point lead at quarter time.

The second quarter was the Mikkel Norlander show. Denmark had been repelled by the Swedes half back line in the first quarter but now they went long and the result was three consecutive goals and a behind to Norlander. Holstein chipped in with another goal for Denmark and the match was pretty much over from that point. A late goal from Sweden’s Tobias Stahl gave his country some hope going into half time despite being 26 points down.

Norlander kicked his fourth in the third quarter as Denmark put on 26 points for the quarter with attacking football and creative handball, Sweden battled hard but could only hold out Denmark for so long. Campion and Biron were most damaging for Denmark around the packs and around the ground. Sweden added just one point for the quarter and faced a deficit of 51 points.

The final quarter saw Denmark cruise to the line with Norlander kicking his fifth. Sweden showed they would not give in kicking three goals to one in the last quarter including two to captain Johan Lantz.

In the end Denmark was too strong, finishing 12.3 (75) to 6.2 (38) winners and sending a message to the other top contenders not to count them out of the running.

@ Brett, yeah, I've retired from footy after last year. I might do a comeback at some stage though as I'm only 8-9 games short of reaching 200 DAFL games. Everyone can be replaced but Mikkel is my age so I wouldn't call it replacement - at least not on a long term solution.